


Spirit of Spring

by Settiai



Category: Brave (2012), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of The Brave Tangled Dragons - Fandom, Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Crossover, Dark, Gen, One Shot, Past Character Death, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 10:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3407300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four spirits. Four seasons. One of them tells how she came to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spirit of Spring

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the premise of the [Seasons Guardians AU](http://rise-of-the-brave-tangled-dragons.wikia.com/wiki/Seasons_Guardians).

"I fell."

Rapunzel's voice cut through the escalating argument like a knife, and the three of them immediately silenced. They all turned toward her, various degrees of confusion on their faces.

Rapunzel's face was wan, paler even than usual, and she didn't quite meet their gazes. "I remember falling," she said softly, her eyes focused on the ground. "Eug—someone I cared about was hurt. I was going to heal him. That was the deal that I made. She would let me heal him, and I wouldn't fight her, and then we'd go far away."

Her voice was getting louder, the words coming out faster and faster. "Except Eugene didn't want me to heal him, didn't want me to agree to go with her. He tried to cut my hair. She saw what he was doing, and she yanked me away. I kept singing, and it was working, it was healing him even as she shoved me because part of my hair was still on him, and then—then I was falling."

There was silence for a second or two. The only sound was Rapunzel's ragged breathing.

"Oh, Rapunzel," Merida said, her voice shaking slightly. "Do you mean that you—"

Rapunzel held up her hand, cutting her off. "I'm not finished," she said, the words breaking just a little as she spoke.

Merida bit her lip. Then she nodded, not saying anything else.

None of them met each other's eyes.

Rapunzel took a deep breath. "I tripped," she said quietly. "My feet caught on something, and I tripped. I was too close to the window. It was a tower. My tower. My home. I just kept falling. And then there was pain, but just for a moment, and I heard Eugene yelling my name and heard Mother screaming and I heard—I heard—nothing. Then there was nothing."

"Rapunzel," Hiccup said. He stopped after that, his face almost colorless.

"And then I woke up," Rapunzel continued, as if he hadn't said a word. "I was sitting on the ground at the base of my tower, in a bed of flowers. Beautiful flowers. There hadn't been any flowers there before. Not there. I stood up, and I was going to try to climb up. But then the wind just, well, you know. I flew. And I was suddenly at the top, slipping through the window. And—and—and everything was wrong."

"Wrong?" Jack asked, tilting his head.

"I'm never going to get this out if you three keep interrupting me," Rapunzel said tiredly, a hint of a dark amusement in her voice. She blinked a few times, her eyes suspiciously red.

No one said anything for a moment. Rapunzel took a deep breath, as if she was bracing herself. Then she continued.

"There was a layer of dust on everything, as if nobody had been there in a long time." She hesitated, as if she wasn't certain how much she wanted to share with them. "There were bones. Old and crumbling, like dust. The remains of clothing. Not much, but enough. To tell that it was her. Had been her. Mother, I mean."

She looked down, staring at her hands as she wrung them nervously. "I think they were just Mother, and not—" Her voice dropped to barely loud enough to hear. "I hope they weren't him too. I'd like to think that I saved him, in the end. That maybe that's the reason I got a second chance, because I died saving someone. Saving him."

The silence that followed was awkward and uncomfortable. Rapunzel didn't look up, and the rest of them didn't know what to say. Dying was the one thing they all had in common, but it was also the one topic that they never talked about. Thinking about what they'd lost, who they'd lost… it hurt. No matter how long it has been since then, it still _hurt_.

"How much time had passed?" Hiccup asked hesitantly.

Jack and Merida both shot him dirty looks.

"What?" he asked defensively, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "We know how long it was for the rest of us."

Jack brought his hand up to cover his face. "Hiccup, no. Just, no."

"You didn't have to just ask like that!" Merida hissed. "Do you not have a lick of common sense in that head of yours?"

Hiccup's eyes narrowed. "Hey!"

"It's fine," Rapunzel said. Her voice was shaking, just a little, but it was stronger than it had been just a minute or two before. "I don't know, exactly. Years. Less than a decade, I think. Not as long as it was for you or Merida, Hiccup, but much longer than it was for Jack."

She gave them all a tired smile. "Well, now you know. That's my story."


End file.
